Page:History of Freedom.djvu/381

 DÖLLINGER ON THE TEMPORAL POWER 337

\Vhilst Scotland has clung to the original dogma of Calvin, at the price of complete theological stagnation, the Dutch Church has lost its primitive orthodoxy in the progress of theological learning. Not one of the several schools into which the clergy of the N etherIands are divided has remained faithful to the five articles of the synod of Dortrecht, which still command so extensive an allegiance in Great Britain and America. The con- servative party, headed by the statesman and historian, Groen van Prinsterer, who holds fast to the theology which is so closely interwoven \vith the history of his country and with the fortunes of the reigning house, and who invokes the aid of the secular arm in support of pure Calvinism, is not represented at the universities. For all the Dutch divines know that the system cannot be revived without sacrificing the theological activity by which it has been extinguished. The old confessional writings have lost their authority; and the general synod of 1854 decided that, " as it is impossible to reconcile all opinions and wishes, even in the shortest confession, the Church tolerates divergence from the symbolical books." The only unity, says Groen, consists in this, that all the preachers are paid out of the same fund. The bulk of the clergy are Arminians or Socinians. From the spectacle of the Dutch Church, Dr. Döllinger comes to the follo\ving result: first, that without a code of doctrine laid do\vn in authoritative confessions of faith, the Church cannot endure; secondly, that the old confessional writ- ings cannot be maintained, and are universally given up ; and thirdly, that it is impossible to draw up new ones. French Protestantism suffered less from the Revolution than the Catholic Church, and \vas treated \vith tender- ness, and sometimes \vith favour. The dissolution of Continental Protestantism began in France. Before their expulsion in 1685, the French divines had cast off the yoke of the Dortrecht articles, and in their exile they afterwards promoted the decline of Calvinism in the N etherIands. The old Calvinistic tradition has never been restored, the works of the early \vriters are forgotten, Z